Political commentary from the LA Times

Liberal Obama secretly breaks bread with known right-wingers tonight

January 13, 2009 | 6:47
pm

President-elect Barack Obama went wooing tonight, having a private dinner a week before his inauguration with a prominent posse of profoundly conservative thought-control writers at columnist George Will's comfy Chevy Chase house that has windows that other reporters could peek through to scope them all.

David Brooks of the N.Y. Times and the Weekly Standard's William Kristol were also spotted there. Also the ever-perspicacious Charles Krauthammer. Could El Rushbo be there too? He had a guest host on air today. Nah, too hard to believe. TrapperJohn would be furious.

Surely Obama's chief political strategist and former Chicago political reporter David Axelrod had nothing to do with giving the alleged opposition opinion makers a prized pre-inaugural evening's access to someone known henceforth as "the top Windy City source."

It would be a very savvy move to have them hear the Change Agent's thoughts from his own mouth. And also perhaps try out some of his inaugural speech ideas and see what questions they raise in advance.

In their upcoming columns now watch for giveaway phrases like "according to a really very, very senior Obama administration official."

Key questions: Will such soirees arouse more centrist suspicions over on the other side of the spectrum even before the stimulus spending circus gets started? And will Weekly Standard readers disbelieve anything positive they spot creeping into those columns because he was bought off over charming Democratic appetizers?